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Harvey Weinstein’s Third New York Trial Opens on Jessica Mann Rape Charge

Jurors must decide if alleged power abuse outweighed messages that the defense says show consent.

Overview

  • The third New York trial, which opened Tuesday with opening statements, has a jury of seven men and five women and is expected to run about a month.
  • Prosecutors say Weinstein used power, control and manipulation to exploit Jessica Mann and offered a film role to draw her in, and they place the alleged rape in 2013 at a Midtown hotel.
  • Weinstein pleads not guilty as his lawyers argue the sex was consensual, citing years of contact and affectionate emails that continued until 2017 after other accusations surfaced.
  • The charge is for rape in the third degree under New York law, which focuses on lack of consent rather than severe physical force.
  • This retrial comes after a 2020 New York conviction was thrown out in 2024 and a 2025 jury split that deadlocked on Mann’s count, and he remains imprisoned on a separate 16-year California case now on appeal.